(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to an air conditioning control method for a vehicle and, more particularly, to a method of controlling air-conditioning in a vehicle that can improve heating performance of a vehicle by performing optimal operation amount control.
(b) Background Art
Modern vehicles are typically equipped with a Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system for controlling the interior temperature and creating a pleasant cabin atmosphere. Further, many vehicles are equipped with a Full Automatic Temperature Control (FATC) system that provides a pleasant environment by automatically controlling the interior temperature on the basis of temperature set by a driver or passengers.
In the FATC system, when a user sets a temperature, in order to control the interior temperature of a vehicle, an air conditioning controller (FATC controller) receives detection signals from a variety of sensors—for instance, a solar radiation sensor for detecting solar radiation, an external temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of external air, and an interior temperature sensor for detecting the interior temperature of the vehicle—calculates an interior thermal load on the basis of detection values from the sensors, and determines settings, including a discharge mode, a discharge temperature, a discharge direction, and air flow in consideration of an air-conditioning load corresponding to the interior thermal load. The air-conditioning controller, in order to control the interior temperature and the operation of the system, can receive detection values from sensors—for instance, a discharge temperature sensor for detecting discharge temperature, a heater temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of an electric heater (for example, a PTC heater—e.g., an auxiliary heater in a vehicle with an internal combustion engine or a main heater in an electric vehicle), and an evaporator temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of an evaporator—and can control operating parts, such as a mode actuator, a temperature door (i.e., temperature control door) actuator, a wind direction control actuator, an air-conditioning blower, an air-conditioning compressor, and an electric heater, so that the supply of air for air-conditioning is controlled in accordance with the determined discharge mode, discharge temperature, discharge direction, and discharge mount.
Meanwhile, due to recent improvement in the efficiency of engines and multistage of transmissions, conventional heat sources available for heating the interior of vehicles have been insufficient, and there is a need for a technology that can improve heating performance efficiently using the insufficient heat sources. Further, there is a need for a technology that can improve heating performance by minimizing a loss of heat energy in heating and improve warming-up performance for an engine colliding with the heating performance.
Conventionally, an air-conditioning blower is operated at a particular amount where it can produce maximum wind to supply as much heat as possible from a heat source to the interior of a vehicle through air in maximum heating of a vehicle, in which the air-conditioning blower is fixedly operated with the maximum voltage applied. Further, in order to prevent frost on the inside of windows of a vehicle, an air-conditioning mode is controlled in a ventilation mode, but in this case, the interior air is discharged outside and a large amount of energy is lost.
Therefore, heating is conventionally performed without consideration of the amount of lost energy, and as a result, energy for heating is inefficiently used. Further, the heat from an engine is used for heating, so the warming-up performance of the engine is reduced due to the loss of energy.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and therefore, it may contain information that does not form the related art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.